In 1995 I opened my own sanctuary for New Forest ponies and saved and rehomed over 57 from slaughter over a 5-year period. This was so rewarding and totally voluntary and I had to raise over £80,000 a year to keep it going. I took on Chelsea who was 6 months old, she was riddled with lice and worms and would attack any man who came near her, after plenty of patience and tender loving care we formed a truly awesome and special relationship, and I decided I would keep her myself! I had a lot of difficult ponies, young foals that I rescued who had been taken away from their homes too early. Wild mares, and many sick foals who needed calm and understanding and ongoing veterinary care. Body language played a very important part and I had over 30 volunteers helping on a rota, this is how I met my best friend Hannah Evans. Chelsea actually made it to compete at Burghley, against other ponies costing 1000’s of pounds. This was one of my proudest moments. I received an award from the Mayor of Eastbourne for my hard work within the community. One of my rescues DHAC (Didn’t Have a Chance) who I rescued from the meat man in 1995, found himself needing a retirement home due to suffering from arthritis and Cushings Disease, so in November 2019, I decided to give him the loving home he deserved and he lived in comfort three miles from my home at a friend’s retirement livery farm until we sadly lost him in May 2021. I also have Chelsea who is now 23 years young, the star of my books and the inspiration behind them. I also published a book called Shelly finds her dream pony Chelsea, 7 years ago, and an American book critic Sue from Kid-Lit Reviews said my book was too perfect and too good to be true so to speak, and it could have made a brilliant story if it wasn’t too far-fetched and written properly! I immediately contacted her and explained I had never written a book before. We talked via email and she continued to help and encourage me to re-write the book and to bring in my main passion of the rescue work, which is how the complete re-write, turned into The Adventures of Bella & Emily. There are now 6 in the series, and I have donated all profits from this book to my 5 chosen rescue organisations https://www.thebrooke.org https://www.helpingpaws.co.uk https://leinsterhorseandponyrescue.com https://www.horseworld.org.uk and https://www.retreatanimalrescue.org.uk To date I have donated £4273.47 between rescues in need. In 2012 myself and my partner adopted a 6-month old dog from our local rescue centre. He had been shut in a kitchen, abused and had half his tail chopped off. The inspectors had brought him in, and he had laid in his own wee at the back of the kennel for the first two weeks. Well, I wasn’t expecting what happened next! Poor Jasper suffered with severe aggression, I had been used to horses biting me, but never a dog! I couldn’t hoover, if I put him in the boot of my car, he would wet himself and get in such a state that he couldn’t control himself and would end up biting me. The rest is in the book Inside A Dog’s Mind Jacob’s Journal. After several behaviourists and hundreds of pounds spent, we were still no further, and one even gave him an asbo! I went to talk to my vet to see if there were some herbal treatments to calm him down, unfortunately Jasper went to bite the vet, and he advised me he should be put to sleep. This is when I started to get pictures in my head about what had happened to Jasper and this is where we started moving forward as a team. In November 2012, my partner and I took him to one of Elizabeth Whiter’s healing nights in Ditchling, and this was the start of a fabulous friendship with Karen Lippitt who was Jasper’s healer on the night. Karen had just founded Helping Paw’s with an aim to help any rescue animal in need from all over the world. We fundraise, hold auctions, events, anything we can think of to raise money and to date the total raised is £600,000 Karen Lippitt can tell you more about all the wonderful work Helping Paws does. After my journey with Jasper proved to be so successful, (sadly my Jasper passed away on the 15th July 2023 aged 11), I realised I wanted to help other dogs who had problems, this is when I decided to study to become a behaviourist. I detest any behaviourists who bully, scream or shout at dogs, dogs need calm, patience and understanding with positive and guided reinforcement. I am a fully qualified Canine Behaviourist Practitioner after completing my Canine Psychology & Behaviour course with The International School for Canine Psychology & Behaviour https://theiscp.com/about-the-iscp.